Author's Note: Hello! Welp, this is Chapter 2. Apologize for the abrupt-ish cliffie in the first chapter…wish I could say this chapter didn't follow in that fine tradition, but it sort of turned out that way. Next chapter will be more conclusive, promise! Shout out to my wonderful beta and friend, Dsmrm2023 for looking this over and for positive encouragement (the height thing will be corrected…eventually…I think) Anyway, read on!
BPOV
I wanted a bit of time to think over what I was going to write and how I was going to try to contact my new soldier friend. I decided not to tell the girls right away, to give me time to process it before they gave their input. With that in mind, I greeted the girls and asked about their days. We chatted about school, sharing info about our classes and teachers for an hour or two. Rose did an imitation of a professor of hers who had a rather unfortunate looking shuffle-walk, which she already had down perfectly, that had us giggling. As always, I chimed in with my signature comment, "Now Rose, that's unkind…" to which she told me that he then had spent the next 45 minutes of class time trying to look down her shirt. To which each of us gave a loud, "EW!" and I promptly dismissed any bad feelings about making fun of him.
We dubbed him The Pervy Penguin, and then had a competition to see if either Alice or I had any teachers that could match him in the creepy category. Alice's contribution was a teacher who possessed dreadlocks and sported a smile with bright orange lipstick smudged on her front teeth. We discussed it for a few minutes, but then agreed that having a pervy teacher was definitely worse than teachers with questionable taste and lipstick teeth. My contribution was my one amusing teacher. He was a nice enough guy seemingly, and I was excited for his class, but he wore this Hawaiian shirt. Now, normally this is nothing to snigger at, each person has their own taste and blah-de-blah-de-blah. However, this man possessed some ferocious chest hair. I sat in the back of the class and could still perfectly see the differentiating salt and pepper strands that tumbled profusely out of the 'v' exposed by having the top button of the shirt undone. It clashed with his blue shirt and obscured at least one whole yellow flower on each side of the 'v'…that is how long they were.
We were past giggles and into full on snickering by this point. Alice mischievously looked at Rose and I, once we'd regained the breath that laughter had stolen, and said the oddest thing; simple words in a sentence that should never be uttered, especially not in a dead-pan tone from Ali's pixie face while her eyes were sparkling with mischief. Prepare yourselves, as once this is said you won't be able to help but visualize it. She said, "Picture this: Pervy Penguin Man with massive, matted dreadlocks and offensively bright orange smeared lipstick and a profusion of chest hair trying to escape from beneath his shirt." …AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Did YOU see him? I literally felt like I was dying I was laughing so hard. All of us started howling until tears ran down our faces. I couldn't tell you what was so funny about it, but it was just one of those things.
In my particular vision of Pervy Penguin Man, I thought of The Penguin from the 1997 Batman and Robin movie, you know the one with Michael Keaton? I'd had an ex boyfriend give me all the Batman movies on DVD, so as soon as I shared my thought, we all decided to watch that movie in honor of The Pervy Penguin. The girls finished changing into jammies, while I popped up some Kettle Corn (BEST. POPCORN. EVER!) and we started the DVD. The minute Mr. Penguin made his appearance; we lost it all over again. We spent the rest of the night doing one-liners in Danny De Vito's accent from the movie. We decided to add The Pervy Penguin to our manifesto. When we were little, we had decided to write down all of our secret jokes, catch phrases, etc. so we would never forget them. We pulled out the Manifesto, which still carried a few of the large quantity of stickers we had stuck on it in our childish exuberance. After going through and reading/remember our favorite one-liners and the stories behind them, we had Alice (because she has the best handwriting) write in "#81. Mr. Pervy Penguin". As sentimental as it sounds, I swear we can make even everyday life into memorable times.
As I was lucky enough to not have school the next day (oh the joys of a college schedule!), I decided I would call up Angela and see what she was up to. I wanted to talk to someone about signing up for the "My Soldier Campaign" (as I'd started to refer to it in my head), and since Rose and Alice were in school for the next couple hours I figured I'd talk to La about it. With that in mind, I hopped in the car and headed over to her place. I knocked on her pretty greenish-blue door in a cheerful staccato beat…only to get no noticeable response. I waited a couple heartbeats, and then tried again a bit louder. "mmmmMMMMMMMmmmmm…!" I heard. Yeah, I had no idea what that muffled sound meant either. So, being my usual annoying self, I continued my staccato knock that was more of a pound now. I had just lifted my fist from the door when it swung open…and I was greeted with the sight of a wild haired, not really awake cutie that was glowering up at me through her eyes that were squinting in the weak sunlight.
La's POV
What. The. Hell! I couldn't reconcile the odd knocking sound with my peaceful dream. There is shouldn't be any pounding beats here, only the calm of sitting on Butterfly Beach. I often come here to think and have since childhood. Even as that thought flitted through my mind, a slideshow of pictures started like an oldies reel. My mother taking me here and a young me crafting sandcastles, coming here with my boyfriend and sneaking a make-out session under the cover of twilight; happy memories full of promise and the shine of youth. Then there also were the hard times, woven through those happy moments. Coming here with sadness in my heart and tears that clogged up my throat but refused to fall after yet another family tragedy, sitting alone and sifting sand through my fingers while thinking about my current break up. I go to the beach because you find solace there, especially at night when there aren't many people around. You look up at the stars and listen to the crash and roar of the waves and you can't help but feel small. It helps you realize that, like the stars and the ocean your life will continue and the ability to think in the solitude with the comforting melody of the ocean… *KNOCK KNOCK Knock-na-na-Knock-Knock KNOCK KNOCK!* Ughhhh. Really? I'd honestly thought if I'd ignored that strange noise, it'd go away. But I felt my dream receding and reality coming into focus as I opened my eyes to check the time: 10 o'clock.
The pounding started again and I yelled out the requisite, "I'm coming, I'm COMING!" which seemed to pacify the obviously satanic person who had decided I'd needed to be up. I shuffled through my house thinking, "If it's those damn Girl Scouts again, I will personally promise to beat the ever living crap out of them if they come here anytime before 4 pm…and then send them on their way after I buy 2 boxes of Thin Mints, a box of Peanut Patties, and some shortbread." What? I have a weakness, and y'all would just be lying to yourselves if you didn't agree that Girl Scout cookies are 'magically delicious' and 'Mmm, mmm good!' all rolled up a couple cylindrical cellophane packages. By the time I'd reached the door, the thought of cookies on the other side had pacified me a bit, so that I didn't open the door and immediately start yelling; which is probably a good thing. I swung the door open to reveal Bell. Yes, I know her name is Bella but I call her Bell, B, Estrella…whatever I feel like. Anyway, I see her hopeful face looking down at me and I can't help but sigh. I love this girl, I do, but damn if she is going to let me go back to sleep after this; I know that look. I try anyway, leaving the door open and stumbling back to my bed before crawling into its cotton-y goodness. As predicted, after she shuts the front door she follows me and climbs into bed next to me. She is silent for a full 5 minutes and I'm starting to doubt my first impression that she isn't going to let me sleep as I slide closer to that promising REM cycle…until she pokes me in the butt. Yes. My butt. Now, I have a large posterior and there is no way around that but *no pun intended*, I love my butt. And having it poked while I'm trying to sleep is just not ok. I sighed and rolled over with a muttered and half-hearted, "You bitch." At which point B smiles at me and pulls out a white bakery bag and a disposable coffee cup. Now, I refuse to be ruled by my stomach. This hooker had rolled up to mi casa without bothering to call and was demanding my attention. I would stay strong. She couldn't sway me. My will and mind, once made up, are like iron…and then I caught that sweet unmistakable scent as she teasingly swung the bag around so I could read the label: Spudnuts. Just like that, with my stomach rumbling loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear, she was forgiven. We both knew it, but at least she didn't gloat. She just handed over the caffeine and the old-fashioned chocolate on chocolate with sprinkles doughnut, and I confess, I squealed like a kindergartener. Don't judge me! Those things are like crack or Pringles, once you pop you just can't stop! So good with its yummy, sweet, sugary goodness and the coffee acting as the perfect counterpoint with its rich, inviting smell of deliciousness and…I wasn't listening to a word Bella said. I knew how this worked. I'd accepted her bribe, so now I had to listen. I tuned in.
"…and I don't know what exactly I was thinking, but I just had this urge to do it and kind of throw caution to the winds for a good cause, ya know? I mean, how could I not when they only have a little and my donation would mean the world to them.."
Oh brother. She'd done it again. Bella was like the opposite of me. She possessed this endearing naiveté that drew people to her, or in simpler terms, she was a bleeding heart. She gave money to the homeless people on the corners despite my caution that they'd probably use it to buy booze or drugs, gave money regularly to the ASPCA as well as volunteering there, and she couldn't watch those commercials about helping disadvantaged children over in Asia without tearing up. So, my first thought was that she'd gone and adopted one of those children for like 15 bucks a month.
"Well, B, that's really good of you. Why are you coming to me with your problem face on? This is good news. You're helping someone out less fortunate, giving them a better chance at life, and your 15 dollars can keep them supplied in diapers for the upcoming year or so!" I stated. She looked at me, with her eyes widening slightly, and let out a guffaw. "Diapers…for a year…less fortunate…*snicker* *snicker* Ahaha! You weren't listening to a word I said were you?" she asked me. I opened my mouth to reply when she cut me off with "I should've known when your eyes glazed over at the smell of the doughnut that I should wait for you to surface again before talking to you." I laughed a bit, but conceded that she had a point. "So, what were you talking about?" I asked. "The My Soldier Campaign that I started," she said. When I continued to look at her blankly, she filled me in about watching Army Wives (during which we went on an hour side tangent involving which male lead was the cutest and the plot lines) and getting the urge to sign up to be a soldier's pen-pal. See! Told you. Bleeding-freaking-heart, that one. I also have a soft spot for causes and what not, but unlike Bella I was a bit more in touch with the realities of the world and applied that street-wise common sense to my decisions; B just flew on emotion tempered by whatever logic happened to come to mind. *Sigh* Gotta love her, but really! Randomly signing up for this? I knew then why she'd come to me with her uncertainties about this. My best friend/fiancé/boyfriend/love of my life, Ben, had signed up for the Army in the months following the Sept. 11th attacks on New York and the Pentagon. When we'd met and I'd figured out she had a military background, I shared my own military involvement; i.e. being the one left at home to support my man through his 3rd deployment overseas. It has been one of the main things that has gotten us so close in a matter of weeks, which is miraculous as neither of us click well with other girls; their drama issues and whatnot pose problems for us friendship-wise. But because she knew where I was coming from, I could share stuff about Ben and she actually got it. She didn't judge or tell me I was wrong to give him more leeway than most. She didn't baby me, because we both know I can handle the truth straight up, but unlike my other girlfriends who just compared my relationship issues with theirs, and seemed to always find my relationship lacking, Bella gave credence to the differences in a military relationship; she got it, she didn't judge and I loved her for it. Once again, I took stock of the situation. She seemed…withdrawn today. Even now, she was staring off into space while I was thinking, which told me what she needed today. "Well," I said, "I'm not doing anything today. How about we do a relaxing lounge day and we'll talk more after you get used to the idea a bit more?" She shot me a grateful look and I couldn't help but feel a little maternal and protective. She and I were so similar, and it was easy for me to pick up on the signs that she still needed to think a bit before she was ready to talk but was facing the difficulty of not wanting to be alone…she wanted to put the problem aside for a bit and come back to it. So that is what we'd do. I climbed out of bed and we both snagged a couch in my living room. Sooo comfortable. My couches are the perfect thing when you need comfort. They are just broken in enough that you sink in, but still have that support to provide the feeling of security you get when you fall into your own bed. After a debate, we ended up deciding on a harry potter marathon and I slipped the first DVD in and got comfortable.
BPOV
Hours later, I was still sitting on La's couch, avoiding. We'd ordered pizza for lunch and had been almost comatose all day, which had been relaxing but also gave me the time I needed to think; I swear, sometimes she gets me better than I get myself. I had come to the conclusion that I was just over-reacting. I'd signed up to be a pen-pal and I'd be a damn good one! To the best of my abilities anyway. After the credits came up for Harry Potter 3, I sat up and stretched, then started to gather my things to go home. La and I had a routine, and so as I gathered my wallet, cell phone, and Chapstick, she slipped on her Uggs, grabbed her sunglasses, and we both went outside to the street that ran by her apartment complex. She lit her cigarette, *eww*, and she asked me what I'd come to decision-wise. I told her and she concurred, stressing that there was no point in me worrying. I responded with the thought that this wasn't like a school project that I could just stop when I lost interest, that it'd be a man stuck in a miserable place in miserable conditions, that would be depending on me to help ground them and give them a link to normalcy and home. She took a drag from her cigarette, held it a moment, and then blew out the acrid smelling smoke that somehow always seemed to find its way into my face no matter which direction she blew it out. She acknowledged my fears and promised to be there with me while I tried to figure all this out. Stupid sounding, I know, but I just HATE disappointing people, and this was important to me. She gave me a hug and I thanked her for the afternoon and for knowing that I just needed some silent company, to which she replied, "Of course, darlin, any time!" and threw me a wink as she smacked my bum and sent me on my way. Yes…I seem to be the queen of odd, quirky relationships, but hell! They sure are fun!
When I got back home, I threw a pot roast and some potatoes in the crock pot so I wouldn't have to worry about dinner and there would be food for when Ali and Rose got home. Determined, I started up my computer and logged into my email. I found the email again from Soldier's Angels and copied down the address they gave on an envelope. Then, I got out a pen and some paper…and drew a blank. How exactly does one go about addressing someone they don't know? I'm sure this is a question that is often brought up in online dating situations. Do you say they the generic, "Hi!" or "Hey!", maybe throw in a "How you doin? *wink* *wink*" just to spice it up? That is all well and dandy, but I'm not only addressing someone I don't know, but I'm addressing my ASSIGNED someone I don't know! They could be my age, older, younger, have a family, be single…there really was no protocol that was coming to mind on how to proceed, so I just went with simplicity.
"Dear Soldier…
I hope this finds you well, er, as well as can be given that you are deployed. Speaking of which, where are you deployed, if you don't mind me asking? There is a lot of military jargon attached to your address that I really don't understand; apologies, but even growing up with a bit of a military background myself hasn't given me much experience with deployments. I was told that you may or may not write back, and not to burden you with expectations but I truly hope you will write back! I would love to learn more about you and try to be your friend, if I could. They didn't give me your age, but I did Google your rank. NOT that rank is important to me, please don't mistake my meaning! I was just curious if researching your rank would tell me what branch of the service you are in and I was right! I'm must confess myself curious as to why you chose to enlist in the Army? Again, please don't feel like you have to answer any specific question, I just find that I'm curious about you in general.
Speaking of curiosity, I just realized that I haven't even introduced myself yet! I'm so sorry, let me try again. Hello, my name is Bella, well technically it is Isabella but I prefer Bella. I'm 21 years old and I am a Nursing student in college. My dream is to be an RN and to, as corny as it sounds, make a difference by positively impacting people's lives. Such a funny phrase, 'positively impacting, as if the violence suggested by the word impact is counteracted by the juxtaposition of the word positive to portray a happy intervention. Sorry! I'm also an English minor, and I tend to go off on random quirky tangents at times. I find that my writing follows my train of thought and I am rather easily distracted. Anyway some background on me! I grew up with my older sister Rosalie, or Rose for short, with our parents Renee and Charlie until I was 8. After that our parents divorced, and while it was a painful separation they parted as amicably as they could. They were fantastic at presenting a united front for my sister and me, so while it was a blow it didn't leave us scarred for life or anything. For a couple years we were a bit nomadic with our mom, which was such fun because we were constantly having adventures with just the three of us, but Rose and I grew tired of the upheaval of moving every 6 months or so, so we moved back in with our dad Charlie. I know I mentioned a military upbringing earlier, and that is because Charlie is, well was, in the Air Force. He now is a retired Colonel, and has become the Sheriff of our small hometown, Forks.
I currently live with Rose, who is also attending college, and our best friend Alice. We grew up with her and her twin brother in Forks, minus the period where we were with our mother, and they are like siblings to us…or I should say they are like siblings to me, as Rose is dating Alice's brother Emmett. He actually found work down here so he'll be moving down soon and we're excited to see him! Oh, I feel like I should also mention the Cullen's (that's Alice and Emmett) older brother, Edward. Their parents adopted him while my sister and I were staying with our mother so we don't know him all that well, but the couple times we've seen him, he's turned out to be a funny, decent sort albeit rather quiet. Despite the difference in our relationship with Edward, my family and the Cullens are very tight knit, but we are looking forward to meeting new people in our new surroundings. And…I'm going into a ton of detail on something you might or might not even care to know about. Apologies! I just feel like, if situations were reversed, I'd feel more comfortable sharing personal information if it was a mutual thing. I hope I haven't made you uncomfortable! Maybe I should cross it out…you know what, if it makes you uncomfortable, please say so and I'll refrain from in depth sharing in any further communication, ok? I'm here for you, so we can talk about whatever you want. Also, could you send me ideas on what to include in your first care package? I want to make sure you get some goodies as well as day to day necessities. Well, that's all for now, but I hope to hear from you soon and I'm sending well wishes for your safety along with this letter!
Sincerely,
Bella Swan
Your Soldier's Angel Friend
P.S. I decided to write you a letter in purple as I assume you could use a dash of color to brighten your day! =)
P.S.S. Not to be a bother, but again I would really appreciate it if you wrote back. Not that I wish to bother you or put you out or anything…only if you want to. Ok. Shutting up now. Bye!"
After folding the letter precisely in threes, I push it into its envelope, and then sealed it. After placing the stamp in its designated place, I walked down to my apartment's communal postal box and slid the envelope into the slot marked "outgoing mail", and listened until I heard the soft thump that announced it had indeed fallen into the metal receptacle. Now all there was left to do was wait. How long could it really take?
*A month and a half later*
I was bitter. Yes, bitter. I was compiling a care package for a military man that I didn't even know, who hadn't responded to my letter, and I didn't know if he ever would. So I'd had to guess on what he'd like me to send him and I'll admit to being a bit sore about it. I'd imagined a scenario in which letters would fly back and forth and we'd hopefully develop a friendship-type rapport. I could be another person who cared about his well-being and he could offer me personal glimpses into the life of someone deployed. That was not how this was going. Ali and Rose were helping me place all the item's I'd gathered into my flat rate shipping box. Packets of condiments, tons of hot sauce to flavor their bland MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), nuts/trail mix to snack on, some candy, some notebooks and pens, coffee packets from Starbucks (which were actually rather expensive, so he sure as heck better enjoy them), some baby wipes, hand sanitizers…the list went on and on. I'd gone shopping with La and she'd help me pick out things based on what Ben and his mate's asked her to send. We got everything in, along with a note saying to Enjoy, and just giveaway or share whatever he didn't want or use. We used probably way too much packing tape, but I didn't want items flying out because the tape malfunctioned in some way, and hell, the man has to have a knife with him so there shouldn't be any problem. Then we all climbed in the car and I dropped the package off to the post office on our way to the movie theater.
After the movie let out (it was rather disappointing, as we'd gone to see Bounty Hunter and I thought it was rather unimpressive and unexciting), we went out for a milkshake at one of our favorite milkshake places in Santa Barbara, Kahuna Grill. Seriously, their chocolate milkshakes are to DIE for. They use real chocolate shavings and it is just amazing; truly a religious experience for ice cream lovers. We drove home sucking down our chocolatey goodness and comparing opinions on the movies. I stopped by the mailbox on our way up to our apartment, more out of the daily habit I'd gotten into since sending my soldier's letter than any real hope that there'd be something for me, so I was pleasantly surprised when I got up to the apartment and turned on a light to find that one of the three letter was addressed to me. Normally we just get bills that are addressed to Rose or Alice, that is what the other two were, so I looked for some insignia or logo on the envelope to help clue me in; if it was another company telling me I could open up a credit card account or that I was entitled to free money I'd be really aggravated. Instead, there was just this cramped scrawl in the corner, but it was a bit smudge so I couldn't really make it out. My heart gave a bit of a leap though, as I realized the return address was rather long. I remembered addressing the letter to my soldier and marveling at the address length. I called the girls over and waited patiently as I explained what I thought it was. Always the excitable one, Alice jumped up in down in her enthusiasm and excited told me to hurry up and open it because she wanted to see. Her excitement fed into mine until I was grinning, but I looked to Rose for confirmation first. Ever since I'd told them about it, they'd reacted with varying levels of alarm, enthusiasm, and speculation. Alice was the most positive, and Rose was the logic as always. Rose gave me a little nod, and then said "Get on with it already, you're starting to make ME anxious!" I broke the seal on the envelope and upended it. A couple pieces of folded paper came out, along with some origami looking thing and some sand. The sand was the final confirmation and I was beaming with happiness as I unfolded the letter and started to read.
"Dear Angel…
A/N: So… whaddya think? I'm horrible at guessing what other people's responses will be, so if you would mosey on down to the review button, give a click and invest a moment to give me your thoughts it'd be beyond appreciated! *end groveling for reviews* again, the next one won't be a cliffie.
P.S. Soldier's Angels is a real organization that offers pen pal services to our people who are deployed all over the world. If you are looking for something positive to do, or just looking to make someone's deployment a little better please look them up! Also, if you are unable to give that much of a commitment there are a bunch of little ways you can still make a difference, like the Cup of Joe for A Joe Campaign (just type "cup of joe for a joe" into Google) which lets you donate anywhere from $2 up, and gets a soldier(s) a cup of coffee; that little bit of home to brighten your day. Also, you can attach little messages for their cups so you can send words of support and encouragement. A bonus is that if you send out your email, they sometimes write back! More info on the site. Bottom Line: We can agree to disagree on opinions about war and the deployment of our troops, but it doesn't change the fact that they are still out there, risking their lives regardless of your opinion.
P.S.S. Sorry, that was kind of heavy, but I'm a military brat so I feel strongly about it. Something to look forward to: Soldier-ward anyone? :D Yummy.
